Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The President and the Speaker of the House Make Positive Moves to Support CIR, Stop Worker ICE Raids and End Border Violence!

Our President, Barack Obama, has pledged to moved forward with his promise to tackle the immigration system. He will also work with Mexico to resolve the escalating problems associated with Drug Cartels, Illegal Weapons and Border Violence.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama renewed his campaign promise to tackle the immigration system in a meeting with Hispanic lawmakers Wednesday. "The president made clear to us that he is a man of his word," said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Obama also told the lawmakers that he will travel next month to Mexico to discuss escalating violence from drug cartels and immigration with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, White House officials said.
During the campaign, Obama supported a comprehensive overhaul of immigration policy, including creation of a possible path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding. Obama has yet to tackle the issue, as his administration has grappled with the economic crisis and an increasingly crowded agenda in his two months in office.
But immigration legislation is on the agenda and moving forward, said Hispanic lawmakers who attended the West Wing meeting, their first face-to-face meeting with the president. The caucus consists of all Democrats and one independent.
"The president said more than any of us expected him to say,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. “He was clear, eloquent and determined in letting us know that we're all together on the route to comprehensive immigration reform," Mr. Gutierrez, who is wrapping up a cross-country tour to highlight how families are affected by the immigration system, said the lawmakers “made it absolutely clear that this is a civil rights issue of our community.”
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Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi supported Rep. Luis Guiterrez in his National Tour to stop ICE Raids.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, is "un-American." The speaker, condemning raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, referred to the immigrants she was addressing as "very, very patriotic." "Who in this country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families?" Pelosi told a mostly Hispanic gathering at St. Anthony's Church in San Francisco.
It is unfortunate that both our President and Speaker Pelosi are facing the anger of the hate-filled ANTI extremists on Fox News, ANTI blogs and various comment sections when we should all be congratulating and supporting them in resolving these outstanding issues.

5 comments:

pcorn54 said...

Obama needs to get off his skinny ass and rescind Section 136 of the FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Bill.

I'm afraid his kowtowing to union interests and their corrupt political allies is going to cost us jobs and more which we don't need in this recession.

One can only hope that the jobs that will be lost, conservatively estimated at possibly 40,000 come from the union sectors.

We shall see!

Indigenous Xicano said...

Work site raids are Un-American.

Anonymous said...

Pelosi needs to be removed from office. With or without a CIR stating that the enforcement of ANY of our laws in un-American is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard from any politician. What kind of politician would speak out against the rightful laws of this country and the rightful enforcement of them? She is the un-American one here and a traitor to boot.

Dee said...

Nancy Pelosi is a hero for bravely speaking out against worker ICE Raids and Detention Centers. They are just as wrong as the Jim Crow laws. Everyone should speak out against Bad Laws, speak out about them and work to rescind them.

ICE should focus on the Drug Cartels (conduct stings and arrest violent, felonious criminals) and stop the illegal weapons flow into Mexico.

Anonymous said...

Dee,

I agree that Nancy is heroic for speaking out against the ICE raids, although I do wonder what took her so long. However, I applaud her for taking a stand, and I am going to be watching to see that she follows through with CIR (as my bay area representative).

I am also very encouraged to see that President Obama is not putting CIR on the back burner, as I've heard in other reports. However, I hope that the "secure borders" rhetoric does not mean that he is going to militarize the border - a failed strategy if ever there was one (as the "war on drugs" in Colombia demonstrates clearly). Laura Carlsen has an excellent analysis of all the drug war hype in Counterpunch "Drug War Doublespeak":

http://www.counterpunch.org/carlsen03132009.html

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